"We believe that there was an exchange of gunfire," he told reporters at the scene.

Handguns and rifles appear to have been involved in the shooting, Lawhead said, but no weapons have been recovered.

"I can tell you multiple shots were fired, I don't want to guess how many," he said. "We do have some people that have been transported to the station for investigative purposes so we hope that they will yield information for us."

Neighbors describe hearing multiple gunshots

Alysa Marie, who lives near the apartment complex, told CNN she heard 15 to 20 gunshots fired in rapid succession.

"My brother-in-law could hear bullets flying past our house, he was outside at the time of the shooting," Marie said. "About five minutes later the helicopter was circling around our street (Lynwood), talking on the loud speaker saying to put down the weapons, for the people who were on the ground to get up and get to safety and to let the law enforcement do their job."

Marie said there was a large police presence and she heard about 10 ambulances drive past.

Another neighbor, Eduardo Rivas, also described hearing multiple shots from his house a block away.

"I heard around four shots, then what sounded like a motorcycle speeding off, after that just a continuation of gun shots," Rivas told CNN.